Through it all Thorn doesn’t move.
And neither does the kitten.
My lips twitch as Chrissy offers him a plate. He takes it with a scowl, jabbing his fork into the pasta and salad.
“Here.”
I turn, see that Briar is standing beside me.
The dark circles beneath her eyes are softer, the sharp edges on her face from not having enough to eat already gentling. River is working her magic.
“Thanks,” I say softly, taking the plate she’s holding.
A nod before she turns away.
“Briar?”
Her eyes come back to mine. “You okay?”
She nibbles at her bottom lip. “I’m fine.”
My mouth hitches up and though I expect her to walk away, she pauses, her brows coming up. “Why are you smiling?”
“I’m just thinking that some things never change.”
She frowns.
I lean in, brush my thumb over the V that’s formed. “You always say you’re fine. Aliens could be invading and the human race at risk of extinction and you’d still say you were fine.”
Her nose wrinkles. “I want to argue with you.”
“That’snew,” I quip when it’s clearly not.
The Briar of the past was beyond sweet, yes, but she was also tough as nails when something really mattered, and once I made my way past those thick, icy walls of hers and she trusted me, she hadn’t shied away from making her wishes known.
I expect her to glare at me.
Instead, she smiles.
“What?” I ask.
“I’m remembering that time on the island.”
Warm sand. Crystal blue water. Waves lapping at our toes, the sun setting in the distance, and…Briar yelling at me.
Our first argument ever.
“I don’t even remember what we were fighting about,” I say, daring to move a little closer.
Her eyes flare…exactly as they had on that beach. “Seriously?”
“I feel like it had something to do with you being completely unreasonable?—”
She gasps in outrage, smacks my arm. “I wassonot being unreasonable. You were being your typical pushy, billionaire self, and I was just trying to cook a meal.”
“You kicked the chef out of the kitchen so you could take over.”
“I gave her the night off because she’d been working so hard!”
